The First Time
by starcanopus
Summary: The first time he told her he loved her was in their fifth year, and she remembered laughing at the matching hues of his cheeks and hair, but reached up anyways to entwine her arms around his neck and kiss him, whispering the same three words back in his ear. [Fred x Reader/OC]


The first time he spoke to her was on the Hogwarts Express, in their first year. The compartment was empty save for her, sitting alone, immersed in her book. He barged in, along with an identical boy who must have been his twin. He winked at her and grinned toothily, introducing himself and his twin, George, with a flourish. They hit it off surprisingly well, and she became fast friends with them and Lee Jordan, a boy with a character quite like the twins'.

The first time she heard him laugh was during the Sorting, when the Hat cried out _Gryffindor!_ for the whole hall to hear. He jumped off the stool with a whoop, pumping his arms excitedly as he made his way to his House. When she was sorted into Ravenclaw, he stood up on his House table's bench and waved at her, gesturing wildly to himself and his brother. She was unable to keep a smile from breaking out across her face, and had to turn away to keep from laughing at his whimsical behavior.

The first time he convinced her to break the rules and help him and George with a prank happened at the start of second year, when she finally caved and agreed to help, after a whole year and summer of resisting his persuasion to join in on his and his twin's "fun". They stuck Filch's cat onto the ceiling of an abandoned and dark corridor and silenced her using a couple of advanced spells the twins had wheedled her into divulging. Despite her initial guilt and apprehension over the incident, the twins succeeded with her tips and it took days for the professors to locate and figure out the combination of spells used in order to counter them.

The first time she attended a Quidditch match was after Fred begged her to watch a Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match, the first match he would play in since being accepted along with his twin as the Beaters on the Gryffindor team. She jokingly predicted that Slytherin would win the match, and of course, being the mischevious twins that they were, they made a bet with her. If Gryffindor won, she would have to wear Gryffindor colors for a good two weeks. If Slytherin won, they would be her personal slaves for one week. Seeing nothing to lose, since the entire Ravenclaw house already knew how close she and the twins were, she agreed. Nevertheless, it was annoying having to be the only one in red and gold in a sea of blue and bronze for almost a month.

The first time she met Harry Potter was during the third year, when the twins bragged to her about their outstanding new Seeker and dragged her to introduce to Harry. She recalled fussing over his thin figure, and whacking the boys when they pointed out the uncanny resemblance to their mother, who would've acted exactly the same way.

The first time he held her hand was during her and the twins' fifth regular Hogsmeade visit in their fourth year. Fred complained loudly, and demanded that she warm up his right hand for him. Though she could plainly tell what he was getting at, she hid her smile and took his larger hand in hers, ignoring the crimson blush on his cheeks and the one creeping onto hers. She wasn't sure when exactly she started to fall in love with him; perhaps, her fondness for him had just grown into something more over the years. Her parents, though clueless about the Wizarding world, didn't need to know too much to point out that the twins didn't seem like her choice of friends, especially Fred, who was quite the daring prankster. She noticed the little things about him more than she noticed things about his twin. After all, she was possibly the only one besides their mother, who even then sometimes confused them, who could tell the twins apart. George pretended not to see them holding hands, but the shiteating grin he directed her secretly let her know that he would not forget what had happened.

The first time he kissed her was by the lake under the moonlight and bright, watchful stars. He had asked her to meet him by the lake in the morning, a suppressed grin on his face as he did so. She thought that perhaps it was another prank, another one of the many that they had performed over the years, but when she arrived promptly at 11 pm, she noticed the lack of George's presence. Fred held out his hand to her, and with a grand bow, asked her for a walk along the Great Lake. She was suspicious at first, surely, even though she was an unwilling yet forgiving victim of many of the twins' more harmless pranks, that they wouldn't resort to pranking her in the middle of the night.. _.by the lake_. But as he grasped her hand with his, and smiled crookedly down at her, eyes soft and sparkling with something unrecognizable, her qualms about being the victim of a trick slipped away. He confessed to her then, how he had always been able to notice her, whether it be in the midst of a crowd, or from far away. He told her how ever since he had slipped into her compartment on the train four years ago, his feelings for her had developed from friendship to more. And so, there, under the silver moon, hidden away from the rest of the world, he asked her to become his girlfriend. She would never forget the contagious smile that had burst out across his face, and the way he wrapped his arms around her waist and spun her around, laughing joyfully. And when he slowly lowered her, their foreheads touching and his breath ghosting softly across her face, he pressed his lips to hers. The next morning, he lit up the Great Hall with the announcement in fireworks of their relationship, and sauntered over to the Ravenclaw table, ignoring her embarassment, to drop to his knee and present to her a beautiful bracelet made of dragonhide and dragon bone, embedded with smooth gemstones that could be used to send messages to its matching partner, which was wrapped securely around Fred's wrist.

The first time she met his entire family officially was in the summer before her fifth year. Fred's mother had invited her to come along with them to Egypt, and made it clear that she would be very welcomed. Her parents, though skeptical about her going on a trip with her boyfriend, were slightly comforted by the fact that his whole family would be going as well, and provided her with the necessary funds and more to go with them. Fred proudly introduced her to his family, despite George making suggestive remarks in the background. Suffice to say, she loved his family instantly and they loved her back, even Percy, who reluctantly dropped the grudge he held against her for helping the twins dye his hair a spectacular rainbow color once. He even told her that she could do so much better than Fred, and promptly received the mentioned individual's promise of a miserable vacation. She hit it off extremely well with Bill and Charlie as well, for she had always been interested in finances and she had even had a dragon phase where she'd absorbed almost everything there was to know about dragons. In the end, true to Fred's word, the twins tried locking Percy in a pyramid, much to her secret amusement and their mother's disapproval.

The first time he told her he loved her was in their fifth year, and she remembered laughing at the matching hues of his cheeks and hair, but reached up anyways to entwine her arms around his neck and kiss him, whispering the same three words back in his ear. And there were many more exchanges of _I love you's,_ in spite of the audience of Fred's twin, who would brilliantly mime throwing up. But she and Fred knew that though George pretended to be sick at the sight of their affections, he had always been rooting for them on the inside.

The first time she attended an official Quidditch match was in the summer before her sixth year. She was delighted to see Harry Potter again, who had grown so much since the last time she had really properly had a talk with him. When the Malfoys confronted the Weasleys, she sent an original itching hex that she had perfected at Lucius Malfoy when he turned; an itch would slowly develop and not stop until it faded after a week. Fred and George smirked, throwing their arms around her shoulders and declaring to their family, Hermione, and Harry, "That's our girl." The match went well, though Fred bristled with anger when the Irish captain and seeker Aiden Lynch winked at her as he whizzed past.

The first time they danced was during the Yule Ball, after he had asked her, once again announcing it loudly in the Great Hall, with fireworks and the help of the Sorting Hat, which she did not want to know how he came by it since it was supposed to always be locked in Dumbledore's office. The headmaster just bobbed his head, eyes twinkling amusedly, though Mcgonagall put Fred in detention for a week. He and George were fortunate enough to have acceptable dress robes, unlike the atrocious set of robes that Ron had been graced with. She supposed she melted a little on the inside when Fred whispered that she was the most beautiful girl in the universe, smirking proudly down at her. And of course, they danced to their own tune, only stopping to slow dance at the slow songs. When the end of the ball came, he spun her around much like he had when he asked her to be his girlfriend, and dipped her, kissing her with so much passion that her knees went weak. She could hear George whistling in the distance, but she ignored it, lips curving up into smile.

The first time she truly ever hated a professor was in her seventh year, when the menace by the name of Umbridge began teaching at Hogwarts. She and Hermione planned the DA and its meetings, though Hermione did more seeing how Fred kept stealing her away for little romantic sessions out in Hogsmeade or in the hidden corridors of the castle. When the twins announced their departure quite magnificently, Fred swooped down on his broom, eyebrow raised, and seized the front of her robes, pausing only slightly to pour everything he had into one last kiss for the year. She didn't think her cheeks could turn any redder, what with the whistles and catcalls Fred's twin and fellow housemates were giving, along with the sighs and _aw'_ s of her friends. And so the twins left with a bang, though not before ordering Peeves to look after her and give Umbridge hell.

The first time she moved in with anybody was a year after she graduated, when Fred and George invited her to move into their flat, since she had just recently gotten a high-paying job at Gringotts, unsurprising for her success and marks in school. She and Fred shared one room, even though George made fun of them immensely, loving that he could tell them to put up Silencing charms and whatnot.

The first time they had a fight big enough for Fred to truly get furious at was during the next summer, when the tension in the Wizarding world had risen so much that Muggleborns everywhere were endangered. She insisted that by staying, she would only be putting his entire family at risk, worse, since they were already considered blood traitors. He was enraged, and remarked that it didn't matter, that he would stay by her forever. He proposed to her then, dropping to his knee and opening a small box drawn out from his pocket. She could see the faint glimmer of tears in his eyes as he told her, with a slightly shaking voice, that he would never let her go, that she was the love of his life. Tears slipped down her face then, as she said yes, and he slipped the ring onto her finger, where it would remain for the rest of her life.

The first time and only time she truly felt so devastated, like her heart had been ripped out of her chest, like her life had been torn apart, was when she saw his body lying there in the Great Hall after the battle, a smile still etched on his face and his family surrounding him. She remembered stumbling over to him and collapsing, hands trembling as she desperately shook his body, begging him to get up, though her mind had not yet processed that he would not be moving anymore. She pressed her lips to his cool and unresponsive ones, and placed a hand on each cheek, touching her forehead to his and crying, tears slipping off her slender nose as she begged and begged for this to be all just a nightmare. Strong hands took her by the shoulders and she could vaguely register them as belonging to George, but she shook them off, clutching Fred's body closer to her, her own being wracked with sobs. When the numbness settled in, she welcomed it, as she sat by his body for hours, running her fingers through his soft hair, until Percy came by and sat next to her, his expression just as devastated if not more; after all, he had been the one to see Fred die, to see his body fall. After a couple of minutes, he stood up and helped her up, hugging her and telling her to go with his mother. When George Apparated to the Burrow and found her curled up on the couch, he bent down and handed her a bracelet and a ring. She stared at the two objects for a moment before biting her lip and turning her head away, more tears threatening to fall. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and she hugged him back, two broken people collapsed next to the couch, both who had lost a half of themselves.

The first funeral she attended was his. She remembered countless people offering their condolences, first to his family then her, but she could not remember their faces. Molly had completely broken down when she spotted the ring on her finger during the funeral, gasping over and over again, "He was supposed to get _married_."

The first time she taught a class at Hogwarts was a year after the Battle, when McGonagall hired her, remembering her outstanding marks in every class, especially Transfiguration. She didn't know if she could handle being back in the school where so many memories of _him_ existed, where she had fallen completely head over heels for him. But George urged her to try it out, a change of pace because who knew, perhaps it would be good for her. And so on the first day, when classes ended and she patrolled the corridors late at night, she retraced the paths that she and Fred had taken all those years ago. In that corridor, where he first said _I love you,_ she saw a faint figure, standing just beyond the alcove where it had happened. It looked achingly familiar, and as she drew closer, she saw a shock of red hair, though not quite as red as she remembered Fred's hair being. But when she saw the figure's face, her knees grew weak and she collapsed on the ground, hands pressed to her mouth in shock. Because standing in front of her, with that crooked grin that had always lit up her days, was Fred Weasley. But...it wasn't really him, because ghosts were only imprints of their former lives, and that was surely what the figure was...just a ghost. His transparent body drifted towards her and bent down at her level, his grin fading into a sad smile. He raised his hand, as if to touch her face, but only hovered his hand near her cheek, gazing down at her.

"Did you think I would just leave you without saying goodbye? I'm Fred Weasley. You can't get rid of me that easily."

And with his words she let out a strangled sob, tears slipping down her face and yet, despite all that, she smiled. His forlorn look changed into a look that promised mischief, but she could still see the love blazing in his eyes, and for that, her heart beat for him as strongly as ever. Because she knew that for the rest of her years teaching at Hogwarts and for the rest of her life, he would still be there, though just an imprint of his former glory, always watching and supporting her through the good and the bad.

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 **A/N** : Please review and provide feedback! Thank you!


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